Action Alerts

Let’s stop this Texas Gulf Coast crude oil project before it’s built

What's At Stake

Big Oil wants to dramatically increase its exports out of the Gulf of Mexico, putting communities and ecosystems at risk. Thirty-five miles off the coast of Surfside Beach, Texas, Big Oil has big plans to build a deep-water crude oil infrastructure project that would export up to 2 million barrels of crude oil per day to foreign markets on some of the world’s largest ships. If permitted, the Sea Port Oil Terminal, or SPOT, would become the largest crude oil export facility in the US and set a precedent for similar projects in the permitting pipeline that would have damaging consequences for air quality along the Texas and Louisiana Gulf Coast. The U.S. Department of Transportation has tentatively decided to issue SPOT a deepwater port license to export oil, but SPOT cannot construct without first obtaining other important permits, like the air permits that EPA is now considering.

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As a resident of the Houston-Galveston-Brazoria (HGB) area, the EPA regional administrator needs to hear directly from you. The EPA plays a critical role in the review of the air quality and environmental justice impacts of the SPOT terminal and we need to urge them to reopen the public comment period for the terminal’s air permits. The EPA needs to consider better air pollution controls and assess the impacts of ozone pollution on Houston-area residents.

If built out, the SPOT terminal would be Texas’s second largest source of toxic ozone pollution right behind the Exxon Refinery in Harris County, and would particularly harm already disproportionately burdened environmental justice communities in Freeport, Texas who are already dealing with adverse public health impacts of existing fossil fuel facilities.

Up and down the Gulf Coast, Earthjustice is working with communities to fight the industry’s aggressive plans to lock in new oil and gas infrastructure in the form of pipelines, petrochemical facilities, and crude oil and gas export terminals. We’re using the power of the law to keep this infrastructure — which would dramatically increase fossil fuel consumption and increase damage to our health and our climate — from ever being built.

The proposed SPOT terminal is a looming threat to our communities, and we need to make sure that EPA upholds the law and protects public health and the environment in our region. Send a letter to the EPA regional Administrator today.

Oil tanker loading at onshore terminal in the Gulf of Mexico in Port Arthur, Texas.
Oil tanker loading at onshore terminal in the Gulf of Mexico in Port Arthur, Texas. (Adrienne Bloch)

Delivery to Environmental Protection Agency Region 6 Administrator Earthea Nance

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